The Veterans of Foreign Wars is urging Congress to revise the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, warning that funding for the Major Richard Star Act would come from cutting disability compensation for tinnitus and sleep apnea, affecting up to 1.5 million veterans.
The Veterans of Foreign Wars is raising urgent concerns about the Take Care of America's Veterans Act, a comprehensive legislative package that includes the bipartisan Major Richard Star Act .
While the VFW has fought for many provisions in the bill, it strongly opposes a funding mechanism that would cut disability compensation for tinnitus and sleep apnea, conditions that affect millions of veterans. The VFW describes this as a serious problem that could undermine the trust veterans place in the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The Major Richard Star Act would allow certain combat-injured veterans who were medically retired before reaching 20 years of service to concurrently receive full retirement pay and disability compensation without the current offset. Under existing law, these veterans must forfeit a portion of their retirement pay to offset their disability benefits, a rule that the act seeks to eliminate.
According to the Star Act Alliance, this change would benefit approximately 54,000 veterans, providing them an average increase of $1,200 per month. These are veterans who suffered severe injuries in combat and were forced out of service early, making the financial impact significant. To fund this expansion, lawmakers propose revising the VA's rating criteria for tinnitus and sleep apnea. Currently, tinnitus is rated separately from hearing loss, but the new rules would fold it into a general hearing evaluation.
For sleep apnea, the automatic 50 percent rating for veterans who use a CPAP machine would be replaced with a rating based on how well the condition is controlled by the device. The Congressional Budget Office estimates these changes would save approximately $57 billion over ten years, affecting up to 1.5 million veterans. The VFW warns that for many, disability compensation is a primary source of income tied directly to service-connected injuries.
Cutting these benefits could force families into financial instability. The VFW has launched a campaign urging its members and supporters to contact lawmakers and demand revisions. In a statement, the organization wrote, The VFW refuses to accept the idea that one group of veterans must lose so another group of veterans can win. Veterans' benefits are not charity; they are an earned obligation of the nation and part of the promise made through military service.
Congress should honor the contract. The VFW's stance is echoed by other major veterans service organizations, including Disabled American Veterans, whose national commander Coleman Nee said that while the package includes important priorities, the poison pill of benefit cuts is unacceptable. Financial experts have also weighed in. Kevin Thompson, CEO of 9i Capital Group, noted that removing or scaling back compensation for sleep apnea and tinnitus generates savings at the expense of veterans dealing with those conditions.
Michael Ryan, a finance expert, emphasized the long-term consequences: if you are managing household finances around a specific disability rating and that rating suddenly drops, you are not just losing money today; you are losing purchasing power in retirement when you cannot easily go back to work and replace it. That is the financial reality policymakers are not discussing.
While the bill includes other positive measures such as expanded caregiver support, higher survivor benefits, improvements to prosthetic equipment, and increased compensation for catastrophically disabled veterans, the controversy centers on the funding method. The PAYGO rule requires that any new spending be offset by cuts elsewhere, leading lawmakers to target these common conditions. Critics argue that this approach pits veteran against veteran and sets a dangerous precedent.
The VFW insists that Congress should find alternative funding that does not compromise existing benefits. As the debate continues, the outcome could affect the financial stability of millions of veterans and their families
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